Fitchburg mayor hails plans for Great Wolf Resorts

FITCHBURG 
If all goes as planned, Great Wolf Resorts will add Fitchburg to its list of a dozen cities in the U.S and Canada that are hosts to the national family entertainment conglomerate's water park and entertainment resorts.

The plans are grand and call for a complex more than double the size of the CoCo Key Water Resort, currently on the site at 150 Royal Plaza Drive. Great Wolf would add 166 rooms to the hotel, now a Holiday Inn, and increase entertainment space to make what the company hopes will be a one-stop vacation destination for families and draw 400,000 visitors a year.

“We are extremely pleased about the project,” Mayor Lisa A. Wong said. “Great Wolf Resorts is a big company with a national reputation and we believe that their investment will be wonderful for the city in terms of job creation and in terms of establishing the area around West Fitchburg as a recreation destination.”

Great Wolf has entered a purchase and sale agreement with K. Durga LLC, the current owner of the water resort and hotel, and is in the planning phase, according to local officials. The Planning Board will review the initial site plan Tuesday night, and the same night city councilors will consider the company's application for a 20-year tax increment financing agreement — approved last week by the city's TIF Board — and a special permit to expand the water park.

According to the company's application for the TIF agreement, 250 construction and trade jobs will be created during the construction phase, which will take around 10 months starting in the summer. The company predicts 500 permanent jobs once the resort is completed.

The TIF application says Great Wolf is making a $59 million investment in the facility, increasing its real estate value by $26 million.

The requested TIF exemption schedule for real estate and capital investments is for 50 percent of the increment for 10 years, from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2025, and 25 percent for 10 years through June 30, 2035.

Great Wolf will assume responsibility for the fiscal 2014 property tax, the application says, and is requesting 100 percent personal property tax exemption for the first five years and 50 percent for the remaining 15 years of the agreement.

The water park will close during the expansion, but the hotel will continue to operate, Ms. Wong said.

The former owner, Courtyard by Marriott, did not build out the hotel's top two floors, though it was permitted for 325 rooms, the Planning Department said.

Great Wolf proposes to increase the number of rooms from 245 to 325 on the top two floors and convert the mezzanine area into another 81 rooms, bringing the total to 406 rooms.

The project would increase the area from 400,000 square feet to 430,000 square feet and also include approximately 30,000 additional square feet of water park and 55,000 square feet of entertainment space, including areas for mini golf, a kid spa, a bowling alley and an arcade, the application says. The company is also looking at establishing walking trails behind the resort that will connect to existing hiking trails in the area, according to officials.

Employees would increase from 100 employees currently to approximately 500 employees, including salaried management and full- and part-time hourly employees, to serve the 400,000 visitors expected annually.

“With the extension of the Wachusett train station and probably the addition of the ski train (for the Wachusett Mountain ski resort), these will be big draws for a lot of people around the Northeast to come out to this area year round,” Ms. Wong said.

“It will create a lot of opportunity for small businesses and entrepreneurs to think about how to build businesses and be successful in the Great Wolf marketplace.”

The mayor said she anticipates restaurants, retail businesses and services will increase in the West Fitchburg area.

“Great Wolf was looking for a place for quite some time and looking to have a Northeast presence,” she said. “The closest one is in the Poconos. When the property was auctioned a few years ago, they looked at it, but they were not able to move forward at that time.”

The location and the demographics of the region — and the facility's already having been built as a resort — made it attractive to Great Wolf, she said.

In the past, the water park and hotel were operated as separate entities, she said, creating a disconnect between business travelers and families visiting the water park.

“They were not as successful as they could have been,” the mayor said. Great Wolf “markets their resorts as a 'one-night stay and two days of play' that helps for that development to be successful, rather than try to run two separate businesses. They've been operating resorts since 1997 and they are all still in business and doing well.”

So far, the project has no opposition from local officials, she said.

If the council approves the tax break, the agreement will be sent to the state for approval, she said. The state application is due in August.

“We really don't see any issues,” she said. “The company is in good financial standing. The question is always, how quickly can we get this done. The sooner they start operating as a business, the sooner they can hire hundreds of people in the region.”

Additionally, she said, the city is looking forward to collaborating with Great Wolf on marketing the region as an indoor/outdoor destination.